Is the Peter Principle True?

Work places are complex beasts. One place will seem like an octopus, various departments all waving at once in different directions, yet still seeming to move towards the same objective, the next place like a snake where the head makes all the decisions and everyone just wiggles behind it doing as they are told. Whole books are written about how they function and malfunction.
The people within work places are complex too. People with skills and knowledge, experience and leadership, organised and dedicated. And people who are not. Look in any business and you'll soon find who has, who has not, and who think they have but haven't.
The Peter Principle may have been a bit tongue in cheek, and might often be referred to among other business-speak babble, but does it have some real validity? Are people promoted to their level of incompetence and then the ones below them actually do their work to keep things functioning?
I'd speculate that it is more than promotion, it's being employed in a position they are clearly not capable of doing. Do they get their job by overstated resumes, lots of embellishing the truth, taking credit for another's ideas? Do they have previous employers or work colleagues as referees who just want to be shot of them so they'll tell the next potential employer what they think will get them the new job and thus out of their own hair?
It's not pleasant when it happens, and that's pretty much what I have happening at work. One of the minor roles has been held by the wrong person for over two years now, yet on paper, in interviews and referee checks, they looked just right to the manager who employed them.
The person struggles to learn basic information and facts yet claims to be tertiary educated, has no basic keyboard skills, no basic IT knowledge, extremely poor grammar and spelling, and a great time waster. In a job that requires entering data, speaking on the phone, writing up documents, and being able to follow a basic pattern to each day's activities, there is little proof of any the claimed skills and abilities. There is little evidence that the claims made on the resume were accurate, even if the person making them believes they were true.
If one claims to be qualified in teaching English as a second language, then why can't one use the correct tense of basic verbs such as "ring". Why does one persist in using the past participle sans auxiliary verb as the past tense? He rung me today? No, he rang me today !!
Why did one try to tell me that the heading "Bobby's Story" (about one person called Bobby and his story) was incorrect and should have been "Bobbies' Story" then looked confused when I said no and incomprehension was clearly written on one's face when I explained simple primary school punctuation?


It's sad because here is a person unhappy in their job, and is constantly being exposed as not quite who they claim to be. It is sad because so much time has been invested in trying to train and develop, but all that has resulted in is a person who will avoid work because eventually, someone will come and do it for them. It's sad because they just make everyone around them frustrated. And sadder still when the person thinks they are actually doing a wonderful job, and they aren't. It's sad because the sick days and leave days become more frequent as they seek to subdue their unhappiness by avoiding work altogether, until there are no leave days left.  And it's sad because if I were to be asked to be a referee, I'd be frustratingly tempted to dishonestly tell the next poor employer, that this person is someone they are not.

So enough of the heavy unburdening thoughts, I have a holiday due to start in 9 days time, and my flu is finally down to half a dozen barking coughs a day!

I must admit, I do love the week after the clocks turn back one hour. With a body clock still on daylight saving time, bed calls early, and then the alarm is blissfully an hour later than expected. It's a shame that this fades after a week, but tonight, my body is telling me it is 10pm and sleep time is half an hour away, even though the clock says a little past 9. Another nine hours of lovely sleep, just like last night, will soon be mine all mine!!